#IntentionallyIrrational

HTWYL: Never Set Goals

I remember how excited I was as we bought our tickets. Sitting in the car, watching the sky curl into itself as the stars began to pop out, just before the massive screen illuminated our faces with a soft flickering glow. To anyone else, it was another night at the drive-in theatre. To me, I was in awe of living one of the things I never thought I would get a chance to do in my life.

It may sound silly, that going to a drive-in would mean so much to me, and I don’t know that I had a reason for why I wanted to go so badly, but after more than two decades of wishing, I was finally accomplishing something my heart just really longed to do.

I bet you have dreams like this too. Things you’ve always known you would love to experience but assume you’ll never get the chance to do. It might be as simple as going to a drive-in, it might be as difficult as climbing Mount Everest, it might be traveling outside of the country or trying a new food.

Something I’m learning about myself, is that when I dream about the things I really want to do, they stay right there, in my dreams. But dang it, those lists I make about getting the laundry done and going to that meeting, those things get accomplished. So how do we close the gap on that disconnect between dreams and doing?

My reaction is to say, “make a plan, and go do it.” But I think that is a few steps beyond the actual starting point. For me, it all begins with writing it down. Admit those dreams you have within yourself. Solidify your hopes in ink (or in pixels on a screen if that’s more your style). There are some heavy repercussions from seeing that whisper of a hope actually documented in front of you.

So go do it, right now. Write down one thing, just one thing, you’ve always wanted to do. It doesn’t matter how insignificant or how outrageous it may seem. Just write it down.

I’ll wait.

I’m serious. Go. Write.

[Insert Jeopardy music here…doo DOO doo DOO, doo DOO doooo…]

Have you got it? Great! Do you know what you just did? You turned your dream into a goal.

Now, don’t let yourself be overcome with pressure. Goals aren’t completed overnight, some take a lifetime, but you’ve just taken that first step that almost all of us fail to do. When we don’t turn our dreams into goals, we have zero chance of ever completing them, but that simple act of writing them down creates a snowball-effect of action that is hard to be ignored!

And yes, things happen and you may not get a chance to complete your goal, but you’ve already gotten so much closer by merely writing it down. That’s the first step of planning!

So keep that goal within sight; the more you see it, the more it’ll sink in as a goal instead of a dream. Eventually, you’ll come to a place where you don’t just wish for it, but you can’t exist without completing it. That’s when the real planning starts.

That’s where goals turn into action. That’s where dreams become done.

Go. Do. Live.

***********

So what got me here?

A few other bloggers have posted their bucket lists online. I was inspired to create one of my own. There have always been dozens of things I have wanted to do in my life but I never felt like I would actually accomplish most of them.

The mental transformation I have experienced through merely putting these hopes into words on a page has been astounding. Seeing these dreams in a list, somehow makes them seem more within my reach. I am inspired to make my dreams a reality in the story of my own life, instead of resigning them to an, “oh, I’d love to do that,” in response to someone else’s actuality.

So I wrote down my bucket list. Or at least, what I could think of so far. I doubt I’ll ever stop adding to it. And I’m going to share it with you, because I think the second step after goal-making, is to have accountability. So what follows is my current list, and I will be posting the entire list on a page of its own, so you can see when I add to it and check things off.

I’d LOVE to hear what dreams you have turned into goals today. I would LOVE to hear if you have a bucket list and what you’re putting on it and what you’ve already checked off. And I would LOVE to hear what your thoughts are about the things on my list. Please take the time to leave some comments–y’all inspire me so much!

travel to 100 countries [Progress: US (I count this because I have intentionally traveled the US as I would countries abroad), Canada, Mexico, England, Germany, France, Monaco, Ghana, Romania, Hungary]

go water skiing

hike the Appalachian Trail

help someone else cross something off their bucket list

help someone else write a bucket list

ride in a hot air balloon (more than a tethered ride, which I have done)

read a new book every week for a year

visit a concentration camp

bike 50 miles

go on a cruise

be part of a food fight

attend a beach bonfire

see Pompeii

ride in a dune buggy in the desert

ride in an airboat

learn a third language (more than a few phrases)

see Mayan ruins

go cage-diving to see sharks

see a volcano

relax in a natural hot spring

make pottery

attend a foam party

see a flash mob

ride a mechanical bull

set a world record

see a shuttle launch

get a professional makeover

get a deep tissue massage

get out of student loan debt

make pasta from scratch

have afternoon tea in England

complete a 1000 piece puzzle

attend the olympics

attend an NBA game

learn archery

skeet shoot

go snowshoeing

race go karts

ride a jet ski

ride a segway

ride a tandem bike

attend a luau

climb to the top of a lighthouse

explore the rain forest

sleep in a treehouse

go rappelling

walk on a glass beach

hike to the hollywood sign

tour the white house

see an opera

see a ballet

see the Sydney Opera House

see Starry Night in person

tour the Colosseum

tour the Taj Mahal

visit Vatican City

see the leaning tower of Pisa

release a floating lantern

see Stonehenge

visit the Roman baths

go to the British museum

stargaze in Northumberland

tour the Tower of London

ride in a gondola in Italy

attend an NHL game

go to Disney in CA

see a solar eclipse

Things that would have been on my list, except I had already done them before writing it:

swim with dolphins

road-trip across the US

go to Africa

read the entire Bible

do a Tough Mudder

run a half marathon

shave my head (something I always joked about but never thought I would actually do)

Meet the Author

Christina VanScoten is a caffeine addict who moved to North Carolina with her husband to pursue her calling as a writer. She is a twelve-year-old at heart with a passionate spirit that rivals the best of us. Her life's motto is "intentionally seeking an irrational life for Christ."